Chapter 1 - A Not-So-Pleasant Day
Azwan, the golden city, oasis of the sands. Once glorious, once prosperous, current population: 1.
The sole occupant lounged idly on her throne, propping her head up on her slender, pale left arm. It was just another day for Hilla, but hopefully whatever news Magnus was about to bring would break her everyday monotony.
"Where is he…" muttered Hilla. Wasn't the agreed time of meeting an hour ago? She had better things to do. Well, sort of.
To be honest, there wasn't very much to do in Azwan after she sacrificed the lives of the entire populace to the Black Mage in return for power, beauty and youth. She could do something about all the sand blowing around the place, but the place was in the middle of the desert. Try as she would have liked, the sand was there to stay.
Eh, I'll just make a minion do it.
With a snap of her fingers, she summoned an undead soldier and conjured a broom, and occupied herself by staring a hole into the back of its skull as it swept away as best as it could at the sand. If it had a voice, it'd probably be grumbling away about being dragged away from eternal rest to do housekeeping.
It was hot, and Hilla was about to doze off, slumping forward, when-
CRASH
Azwan's heavy stone gates flew backwards like flimsy wooden doors, smashing into the walls behind them. With creaks of protest, both doors fell off their hinges, landing with audible thuds, throwing up a mushroom cloud of sand.
"What in Maple World," Hilla coughed, lifting a hand to shield her eyes. What bumbling buffoon put a foot through her doors so carelessly? She was still a commander of the Black Mage! She was going to incinerate whichever fool this was and add them to her ranks.
"I'm here~" Magnus emerged from the dust, a letter clenched in one of his large fists. "Missed me, witch?"
Hilla sneered.
"Hardly," she gestured at her poor, poor gates. "The moment you stepped into my domain, you've already caused sizeable damage to my property. You don't see me trying to break your ugly statues when I visit the Citadel. And those gates were antique."
"That's because you never visit the Citadel," Magnus scoffed. "It's too modern for your tastes, hag."
Hilla narrowed her eyes. Just because she was 300 years older than he was, didn't mean that she was going to let him get away with his insult.
"Please, like being 700 means that you, dear Nova, are by any extension, young. You've outlived or murdered everyone born within 100 years of you."
Magnus puffed out his chest at the affront, but she had a point.
"ANYWAY, let's get along with the reason I had to come to this blasted desert, shall we?" he said, offering the letter to Hilla, who plucked it out of his hands with undisguised disdain. By the Transcendents, he was HOT, and not in a good way.
Hilla did her best to smooth out the mauled paper, and skimmed over the meticulously neat letter penned in what could only be in Arkarium's handwriting.
"Did you read over this beforehand?" she asked him.
Magnus shrugged. "Still haven't gotten the hang of the language in this dimension, especially the writing."
In short, he was illiterate when it came to words in Maple World. Good to know.
"700 years and you still couldn't even get used to the writing?" Hilla jabbed. "Why am I not surprised…"
"Unlike you, Miss Antique, I'm normally busy with other, more important matters," Magnus snapped back, annoyed. He just wasn't very good when it came to recognizing words in this dimension. "I don't get the liberty to spend all my time alone in my palace. Man, this place is dusty. Don't you invest in housekeeping?"
"Well," Hilla smiled flatly. "In case you don't notice, I'm surrounded by sand. It's a little hard to keep all of it out when I have open windows. Now, back to business."
Hilla, Magnus,
Our sources have informed us that there has been a suspiciously high amount of magic activity in Heneseys. While I am hard pressed to send precious resources to investigate the matter, both of you are neither precious nor busy.
I expect both of you to fulfill your agreements with the Black Mage, our absolute ruler and carry out the task together, as is my requirement. Do it with utmost caution, as I have no further information available on the enemy's movements and would loathe to lose even more men, even if the men in question are underperforming snails.
Should either of you choose not to work together in this endeavor, I would like to remind you that Nagini has been craving a live meal lately and would probably not be in the most behaving of moods should I have to call both of you in to meet me in the near future. Make of that as you will.
Do not disappoint our master,
Arkarium
"What does it say?" Magnus asked, towering behind the red-haired witch, trying to see if he could decipher anything over her shoulder. Beads of sweat had begun to trail down his neck, and he was seriously contemplating removing his chest plate. Is this why Hilla always dressed in next to nothing?
"The old man wants us to check out Heneseys. Some magical activity there or something," Hilla summarized.
"Yeah, magic stuff really doesn't agree with me. That's more your thing." One too many magic fireballs have toasted this Nova to have him willing and dumb enough to walk into yet another magic affair.
"Unless you want to spend the next century digesting in that damned snake of his, we- and I mean WE, don't have a choice. Arkarium's orders."
Magnus groaned. The only thing they soundly agreed upon was their mutual hatred of the reptile. Nagini can go to the pits of hell for all they cared.
"Fine, but don't expect me to handle any magicians," he resigned himself to his fate.
"Like they'll be any match for me," Hilla sneered. "I didn't become a commander because I was weak."
"No, you became a commander because you sacrificed thousands of lives to the Black Mage. I call that bribery."
"Shut it," Hilla growled. Thrusting her right palm outwards, she summoned a swirling black portal. "After you," she gestured for him to step into the portal.
"This isn't another plot to kill me, right?"
Hilla rolled her eyes.
"Just go."
You know that moment of instant regret when you do something incredibly stupid like throwing yourself off the peak of Perion trying to fly? Magnus could relate.
The moment he stepped into the portal, he was freefalling. Plunging headfirst into infinite darkness with no end in sight, he felt his heart clamber into his throat as it braced itself for the ride.
It felt like an eternity, but eventually he was dropped unceremoniously onto a particularly muddy patch of grass. Taking a moment for the world to stop spinning, Magnus opened his eyes to find himself lying on his back in Heneseys park. A departure from the boiling heat of the desert, the rain pattered against his metal armor, water seeping in through the seams, chilling him.
"Lovely weather today," Hilla remarked, floating a few inches above the grass, her voluminous hair shielded by a magic field. "Never cared much for rainy places," she sniffed. "Get up, we can't risk being seen." A wave of her hand and they were cloaked in magic.
With no help from Hilla, Magnus hoisted himself onto his feet, the liquid still trickling down his back. True to her dislike of him, Hilla didn't bother extending her magic umbrella. Shrugging, he followed her to the place they were supposed to stake out. The sooner he got this done and over with, the sooner he could return to his Citadel and have his lackey, Velde- something draw him a hot bath.
They came to a small mushroom house in the furthest corner of Heneseys, where not many adventurers pass by. With the rain, the chances of adventurers walking around were even less.
Hilla crouched behind a bush and gestured for Magnus to follow suit.
"There's definitely been a large amount of magic activity here recently, but it's not new," Hilla said, feeling out the place with her magic. "The magic was cast maybe a day or two before."
"So, what should we tell Arkarium?" Magnus asked.
"I think it should be safe for you to investigate the house a little," Hilla suggested. "Arkarium's going to feed us to his damn snake if he thinks that we didn't do our job."
"Why me?" Magnus protested. Day old or not, magic was still magic. While magic had utility benefits, he definitely wasn't fond of being on the receiving end of a magic attack.
"Because," Hilla took a moment to roll her eyes. "If you mess up, it'll buy me some time to get away. Now go."
Grumbling, Magnus could only complain about it under his breath and he squished and stomped towards the abandoned mushroom house. If there was a magician hiding in wait, Hilla would hear some choice words he had for her.
His great sword in one hand, Magnus gave the door a test push with the other. Unresisting, the wooden door swung backwards with a loud creak, most of the noise inaudible to anyone outside two feet of earshot due to the pouring rain.
The house was empty. Good. Now to just give the place a sweep and call it a day.
Magnus stepped into the house, somewhat glad to be out of the rain. Below his feet a puddle was quickly growing as water trickled down and pooled.
The house smelt a little musty, as if no one had been in there for a while. Odd that Hilla claimed that magic was performed here just a day or two ago. The condition of the house said otherwise.
He walked around the living area, just giving everything a check, when suddenly-
"Now who do we have here?" a voice murmured, amusedly.
Magnus whipped his head around, trying to find the source of the sound. Who was that? His hand tightened around the grip of his sword as he moved into a battle stance.
"What, no introductions? No pleasantries, or a nice to meet you?" the voice questioned, echoing around him. It sounded like the voice was everywhere at once, and Magnus couldn't pinpoint the source.
"Show yourself," he commanded, glad that his voice didn't waver in the least. "Come out and fight me like an honorable soldier."
The voice tsked.
"There you go again, assuming who I am. I never claimed to be a soldier, did I?"
Magnus grit his teeth. This was exactly why he didn't deal with magic users. There was nothing he could do if he couldn't see his opponent. He hated thieves for the exact same reason. Sneaky, dishonorable buggers.
"Relax, Magnus. Why so serious?" the voice taunted, giggling. "It's not like we're about to kidnap you. Oh wait, we are."
"Wha-"
Before Magnus knew what to do, a shockwave went through him, and the world around him began to spin.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit," the voice reassured him before darkness claimed him.
"What's taking him so long?" Hilla peeked out from her hiding spot behind the bushes. How hard could it be to do a sweep of an EMPTY house? Sure, the Nova wasn't the brightest crystal in the cave, but even he could look around and see if anyone was hiding.
"Maybe I should just check with my magic one more time, to be safe," she told herself, opening her palm to scan over the area again.
Like she checked earlier, the magic was a day old at the very least. The people in there should have left, judging by the magical signature around the house.
Wait, something didn't feel right.
Pouring a little more magic into her scan, Hilla's eyes widened.
There's been a concealment spell cast over this area. We've been tricked!
Her mind kicked into overdrive, trying to come up with a plan.
Too late.
"Found you!" a voice cheered from behind.
THUNK.
And all Hilla saw was darkness from then on.
The girl stepped out from the corner, shedding her cloak of shadows as she admired her handiwork.
The Nova commander was out cold, and if her spell held like she expected it to, he wouldn't wake up for another 8 hours, at least.
She had to do something about the fact that he was soaking wet, however. As sturdy as he was, she doubted that he was resistant to pneumonia.
"I found Hilla," her ginger-haired brother sang as he struggled to get the unconscious witch into the house. When he finally managed to, he dropped her unceremoniously next to Magnus on the hardwood floor.
"Man was she heavy."
Lily examined their handiwork. They'd done as their teacher Grendel the Wise had told them to. The trap had worked.
Snapping her fingers, Lily ignited the logs in the fireplace and conjured up some towels and blankets. They should probably dry off the unconscious couple.
"Elwin," she called. "Help me move them to the fire and dry them off. We'll wait for our teacher to give us further instructions."